The occurrence of false memory phenomena is of practical concern in situations
where inaccurate recall has severe repercussions, leading to applied research on
topics such as eyewitness testimony (e.g., Loftus & Palmer, 1974) and childhood
sexual abuse (e.g., Ceci & Friedman, 2000; Goodman & Clarke-Stewart, 1991). When
studied on a basic level, cognitive psychology typically uses the term “memory” as a
noun, referring to a cognitive mental entity that is an informational representation of
an event (e.g. Gallo, 2006). A “true memory” accurately preserves information about
events as they happened, whereas a “false memory” is a distorted representation or
otherwise does not correspond with events as they occurred. False memories are
purportedly the result of information processing errors, and extrapolation from such
errors is thought to reveal the nature of the cognitive structures and mechanisms
deemed responsible for remembering (Brainerd & Reyna, 2005). As such, false
memories are of special interest to basic cognitive researchers seeking to develop
effectively predictive mechanistic models (e.g., schema theory: Brewer & Treyens,
1981).
